During the development of a dental assisting curriculum, a commitment was made to employ the DACUM (developing a curriculum) process as a foundation to the curriculum. Dental assistants and dentists met at three DACUM workshops to develop a definition of the dental assistant and an outline of clinical competencies in the form of tasks and duties specific to the dental assistant in New Jersey. Once the DACUM profile had been developed and reviewed, the product served as the basis for the development of instructional content and curriculum materials that focused on student attainment of the specified skills identified. These tasks were accomplished: project staffing, development of a curriculum materials format, establishment of an integrated sequence of instruction (a curriculum content outline), development of clinical competency statements, and development, review, and revision of materials for printing. (Appendixes include the dental assistant definition and DACUM outline developed in the workshops, the curriculum unit outline, and the DACUM performance matrix showing the relationship of DACUM performance elements to the curriculum unit outline.) (YLB)